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Tribes

February 9, 2009 in Books with 3 Comments

TribesBook 3 of my 2009 Reading List was “Tribes” By Seth Godin. I heard Seth speak in person at Catalyst 2008 and loved it. At the conference he gave out 13,000 or so copies of this book. WOW!

This guy is a genius when it comes to leadership, marketing, and awesome random thoughts on other subjects. You can check out his blog here…its easily THE BEST business blog out there today.

Just to illustrate to you how badly you need to read this book, you need to know that I read it twice. Back to back. That’s how much it impacted me. The second I finished it, I flipped right back to page one and started reading again.

Here are some quick hits. This IS NOT a summary of the book. GET IT. READ IT.

  • The rush from stability is a huge opportunity for you.
  • Leaders don’t care very much for organizational structure or an “official blessing.” They use passion and ideas to lead people as opposed to using threats and bureaucracy to manage them.
  • Three steps: motivate, connect, leverage.
  • “Everything I did was for US, not for ME.”
  • A crowd is a tribe without a leader or communication. Most organizations spend their time marketing to the crowd. Smart organizations assemble the tribe.
  • Defending mediocrity is exhausting.
  • True leaders have figured out that the real win is turning a casual fan into a true one.
  • The idea that wins is the one with the most fearless heretic behind it.
  • Great leaders focus on the tribe and only the tribe.
  • Change isn’t made by asking permission. Change is made by asking for forgiveness later.
  • The ONLY thing holding you back from becoming the kind of person who changes things is this: lack of faith.
  • Leaders who set out to give are more productive than leaders who seek out to get.
  • “Everyone will think it’s stupid! Everyone says it’s impossible!” Guess what? Everyone works in the balloon factory and everyone is wrong. (You’ll have to read it to see what the balloon factory is all about.)
  • Everyone believes that what they’ve got is probably better than the risk and fear that comes with change.
  • Isn’t it sad that so many of us have a job where we spend two weeks avoiding the stuff we have to do fifty weeks out of the year? WOW!
  • The secret is being willing to be wrong.
  • The posture of a leader is this: if you hear my idea but don’t believe it, that’s not your fault; it’s mine.
  • Change almost never fails because it is too early. It almost always fails because it is too late.
  • How do you be sure to get credit for an idea? Real leaders don’t care. Credit isn’t the point. Change is.

Main idea in Tribes? If you think leadership is only for other people, you’re wrong. We need YOU to lead us.

Get it. Read it.

I want to remind you of this awesome tool to manage, track, and trade your books. Go check it out.

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Wild Goose Chase

January 24, 2009 in Books with 3 Comments

513zsrale0l_sl160_Book 2 of my 2009 Reading List was “Wild Goose Chase” By Mark Batterson. I have met Mark in person a few times and attended one of his Church services at Union Station. He is an incredibly humble guy and has always stopped and taken plenty of time to chat with me.

He is also a monster…guy must be like six foot five inches tall.

Wild Goose Chase was somewhat similar to Batterson’s first book “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day.” I loved every page of it and couldn’t put it down. I have a joke with people when I recommend a Batterson book to them: as I make the recommendation, I always say “don’t read this unless you are ok with quitting your job and going after a crazy dream that is destined to fail!” That is exactly what this book will move you to do.

Batterson is INCREDIBLY motivating…I believe the Holy Sirit is using him to propel many people to take action; and not just any action but reckless actions that can only be inspired by God Himself. He shares and references a ton of Scripture throughout the book.

Some quick hits from the book:

  • Batterson covers six “cages” that keep many of us from roaming free with the Holy Spirit as God destined for us to.
  • Cage one: Responsibility. Our God-ordained passions tend to get buried beneath the day to day responsibilities of life.
  • Without even knowing it we start to practice “irresponsible responsibility.”
  • “I’m not convinced that your date of death is the date carved on your tombstone. Most people die long before that. We start dying when we have nothing worth living for.”
  • Instead of making a life, many of us are just making a living.
  • Why ask God to do something for us when it is within our power to do something about it ourselves? There are some things you don’t need to pray about.
  • Some of us live as if God is going to say “well thought” or “well said good and faithful servant.” But He isn’t. There is only one commendation He will use and it is the byproduct of pursuing God-ordained passions: “Well DONE, good and faithful servant.”
  • Faith doesn’t follow signs…signs follow faith.
  • If you want to see God move, you need to make a move!
  • Cage two: Routine. Routines are good, but sacred routines become empty rituals that keep us caged.
  • Once a routine becomes a routine, we need to disturb it.
  • Don’t wait to worship God till you get to the Promised Land; you’ve got to worship along the way. THIS IS holy ground. Take off your sandals now.
  • Cage three: Assumptions. As we age, we stop believing and start assuming.
  • We have stopped living out of right-brain imagination and started living by left-brain memory. That puts 8 foot ceilings on what God can do.
  • The smartest people are NOT the people who know the most. The smartest people are those who know how much they DON’T know…those who make the fewest assumptions.
  • The more faith you have, the fewer assumptions you make.
  • Faith doesn’t ignore reality. It just adds God into the equation!
  • Cage four: Guilt. Satan uses guilt to get us to focus on what we did in the past. This steals your energy to dream God-sized, Kingdom dreams.
  • If you want to impact someone’s life, love them when they least expect it and least deserve it.
  • Cage five: Failure.
  • Sometimes our plans must fail in order for God’s plans to succeed.
  • Cage six: Fear. We have to quit living life as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.
  • The world needs more daring people with daring plans.
  • We need to be more afraid of missing opportunities than of making mistakes.
  • The will of God is NOT an insurance plan…it is a DARING plan.
  • We have to get out of our comfortable Christian ghettos and invade some hellholes with the love of Christ.

Bottom line is this: The Bible says that faith is being sure of what we hope for. BUT, most of us are more sure of what we are afraid of than what we hope for. Get out there and have some smart courage. Count the costs, assess the risks/rewards, and practice due diligence…don’t be mindless, be mindful. But then, do the RIGHT THING regardless of the circumstances.

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The Starbucks Experience

January 10, 2009 in Books, Productivity with 3 Comments

150619Book 1 of my 2009 Reading List was “The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles of Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary” By Joseph A. Michelli.

This great read discusses the 5 key leadership principles that have transformed the ordinary experience of coffee into an extraordinary experience.

Some quick hits from the book:

  • “We are not in the coffee business serving people, but in the people business serving coffee.” This goes along with something Cole says that has always resonated with me. Cole says, “We don’t teach the Bible to people, but we teach people the Bible. Its all about people.”
  • Be knowledgeable, love what you do, and share your knowledge with others.
  • Listening is just one part of creating a connection. We also need to discover each person’s specific needs and and unique situation and then find ways to help meet those needs.
  • EVERYTHING MATTERS.
  • It is just as important to create a great experience for employees as it is for employees to create an experience for customers.
  • A company’s brand is nothing more than the sum total of the individual actions its people take.
  • EVERYONE MATTERS.
  • Retail is detail. Missed details produce dissatisfied customers who go elsewhere.
  • A small detail is often the difference between success and failure. (A 7 cent valve helped Starbucks become a publicly traded company!)
  • These details live in both that which is seen AND unseen by the customer.
  • You CANNOT hide poor quality.
  • Customers want a consistent and predictable product with the occasion prize or extra surprise thrown in. (Like when Cracker Jacks started inserting prizes in 1912. Today’s examples are cell phones with cameras, cars that talk to us telling us when to turn, etc.)
  • Your efforts to surprise are a contagious force.
  • When breakdowns occur, businesses can still delight customers by making things right.
  • Delight is the result of an unwavering commitment to creating a comfortable and trusted relationship
  • EMBRACE RESISTANCE.
  • Nothing in nature grows without facing limiting forces.
  • While it’s natural to avoid contact with detractors, much can be gained by welcoming them into the early stages of problem-focused discussions.
  • When the concerns of critics are allayed, those critics can often become your most ardent supporters.
  • It is essential to correct misinformation swiftly.
  • When errors are made it is important to take direct, unequivocal responsibility and follow up with corrective action.
  • LEAVE YOUR MARK.
  • Successful business leaders realize that a key part of their success is leaving a powerful and positive mark on their communities.
  • The value of a business’s brand is 100% linked to the trust people place in the company to do what it says it will do.

Overall I recommend it. There is TONS of stuff that Churches could apply particularly to their greeting and cafe ministries in this book. You could literally build your entire “frontline framework” from it by gleaning what it means to be welcoming, be genuine, be knowledgeable, be considerate, and be involved.

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